John Gray on Michael Oakeshott

John Gray often misfires, but still he is one of the smartest and most knowledgeable generalists around:

…Oakeshott was not without illusions of his own. He was able to disparage ideology because he believed tradition contained all that was needed for politics; he could not conceive of a situation in which a traditional way of doing politics was no longer possible. Yet that has been the situation in which the Conservative Party has found itself over the past generation. The leader and his cabal of modernisers could hardly expect to undo the more radical modernisation Thatcher had unwittingly imposed on the party. As Cameron will discover, one way or another, an ideologically driven Conservatism is here to stay – even if it means the party once again drifting into limbo.

The full review, which covers British politics and the forthcoming election, is here.  Here is Gray, trying to dismantle A.C. Grayling's rationalism (hat tip The Browser), worth a read.

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